Vancouver's E.A.R. steps up campaign

Anonymous — September 1983

Undaunted by the July signing of the United States-Canada cruise missile test treaty, a Vancouver peace group plans to escalate its anti-cruise activity in the coming months.

End the Arms Race (E.A.R.) is a coalition of 137 Vancouver groups dedicated So “abolishing nuclear weapons sod funding human needs.” It was established in January 1982, and now has approximately 250,000 members. The coalition includes professional, women’s and senior citizens’ groups, as well as labour unions, educational organizations and churches.

The signing of the cruise treaty has heightened public awareness of the coalition, said its Vice-president, Gary Marchant, and has prompted an outpouring of calls to its offices. “There has been an incredible response from people who were not involved in the peace movement before and now want to help.”

Marchant stressed the importance of the Canada-wide peace network. He said the organized effort, which resulted in thousands of people in several cities demonstrating against the cruise missile simultaneously last April, attracted immediate and effective media attention.

E.A.R. is currently planning a four-stage anti-Cruise campaign which Marchant hopes will draw new support from people angered by the recent signing of the test agreement. This campaign includes:

“Refuse the Cruise” booths which are collapsible and transportable and have already been set up at boat festivals, sporting events, in crowded parks and at Vancouver tourist spots. E.A.R. members also wear “Refuse the Cruise” sandwich boards, at these same events, or around town, where they give out pamphlets and information. The response to both strategies has been positive.
An advertisement in the Vancouver Sun during the first week of September. endorsed by a number of other groups, which will reach more than 249,000 people across British Columbia.
Door to door canvassing from September 8 to October 21 to obtain names on anti-cruise petitions. The canvassing will be organised on the basis of Federal ridings, and the wording of each petition will reflect the particular stand of the cruise taken by the riding’s MP. (A similar canvass during the same period is being organised for Toronto.)
A series of demonstrations, which start with one in Robson Square on July 23, will protest the signing of the test agreement. There is also a major demonstration planned for October 23, during UN Disarmament Week, and several United States/Canada solidarity marches are scheduled for December. Marchant said the latter plan came out of a meeting between groups in the two countries as a result of increased awareness of the cruise missile issue.

Although he is troubled by the process which allowed the recent test decision to essentially bypass the House of Commons, Merchant expressed optimism that “the agreement can be reversed and we think we can effect that (reversal) by political pressure.”

The Peace Calendar

Canadian Disarmament Information Service, 1983-1984

Vancouver's E.A.R. steps up campaign